Latte sales in downtown Manhattan hit pandemic high as return-to-office continues

Pret
People walk by a Pret A Manger in lower Manhattan on May 29, 2018 in New York City. Photo credit Spencer Platt/Getty Images

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- We could be seeing quite a bull market for lattes in New York City.

Coffee sales in downtown Manhattan are on the rise as Wall Street offices finally see workers return to their in-person offices, according to data from Pret A Manger, a cafe chain with 63 New York City locations.

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Bloomberg is keeping a close eye on the data via its “Pret Index,” which found that transaction volume at Pret A Manger stores in an area that includes Wall Street and Tribeca set pandemic highs last week.

Sales are nearing about half where they were before the pandemic in the downtown NYC area — hitting 45% in the most recent data. That’s up 15% from the previous week.

Workers have begun returning to the office in wider numbers following mandates from some employers. Rising delta variant numbers, though, caused some to hold off even longer.

In Midtown Manhattan, numbers are up to about 49% of what they were pre-pandemic, a change of 11% from the previous data.

“I think we will still see a good trend over the next month or two in New York, and my sense is that it will be slightly more of an upward trend than in London” Pano Christou, Pret’s chief executive officer, said to Bloomberg.

To compare the numbers to another city’s on the “index” - a London city cluster is at 72% of its pre-COVID basis, according to data.

Featured Image Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images